Cllrs demand tracker mortgage fail-safes

Concerns have been raised by local councillors over the Irish government’s failure to introducing so-called “fail-safe” measures in the wake of the highly-publicised tracker mortgage scandal.

The government and the Central Bank argue that significant post-crisis reforms have indeed been implemented, but Independent Ireland’s Shane P. O’Reilly believes they do not go far enough.

Speaking at the January monthly meeting of Cavan County Council, he tabled a motion to request a full review and adequate confirmation by the Central Bank that procedures are in place to prevent any recurrence.

Cllr O’Reilly said he, like many others, ran into difficulty following the crash of the Celtic Tiger. He too had a tracker mortgage home loan, and he was offered the opportunity to switch to fixed-term offers. “We didn’t opt for it but we know others who did,” the Mullagh representative told his fellow councillors.

The problem, he highlighted, was when banks refused to let people return to a tracker after a fixed-rate period, which they had signed up to initially in “good faith”. In some cases he said banks told customers they were never entitled to a tracker when they actually were, and moved people onto higher variable rates instead, meaning some homeowners paid far more than they should have, sometimes for years.

More than 40,000 plus customers were affected, and in the worst case scenarios, more than a dozen families lost their homes “through no fault of their own” as a result of being unable to make repayments, as highlighted by a recent six-part documentary.

The scandal was that many customers were not told they were giving up a tracker “for life” and they might never get it back.

Once regulators stepped in, banks had to restore trackers where appropriate, refund overpaid interest, and furthermore pay additional compensation for distress.

Cllr O’Reilly noted the work done to date by a pressure group set up, made up of families d irectly affected by the scandal, and he hoped the government might finally follow through on commitments he says remain outstanding from seven years ago.

His motion received support from Fine Gael’s T.P. O’Reilly who said he will “never forget” the day he received a call from his bank manager offering him a fixed rate instead of his tracker mortgage.

He said he even “thanked” the banking official for contacting him specifically. He too did change over, telling the council meeting: “There is no one out there looking to do you a favour, especially the banks.”

Cllr O’Reilly (FG) went on to state that the “skulduggery that went on” should never have happened.